I once messed up an interview thanks to a question about how to be a good leader.  It was very frustrating at the time. I was a great fit for the position and I was confident in my team leader capabilities  – but I just completely failed to articulate it in any way that ticked the right boxes.

Over the years it’s something I’ve given quite a lot of thought. What does make a good leader? And what makes a great team? Here’s my take…

Leadership

It seems to be the in thing, to suggest that “the best teams don’t need leadership” but in my view that’s a load of rubbish, or at best very misleading. 

Teams without good leaders invariably get nowhere. 

Perhaps this is driven by a misunderstanding of what leadership really is? Or perhaps it’s gained traction thanks to many having experience of bad leadership? Either way, it’s a mistake that could seriously hold your team back from reaching their full potential. 

Leadership isn’t about control, who’s in charge or who’s best.

To me, leadership is about setting the tone, taking responsibility for difficult decisions, ensuring inclusivity and getting the best out of each and every individual.  

The leader is there to serve and support the team – not the other way round. 

All the better if you can have multiple leaders in your team.  Yes it’s best if one person has the overall authority for the difficult decisions but many leaders all working in the same direction can work really well. The best sports team have multiple leaders on the pitch all contributing skills, expertise and their own input on how best to achieve their goals.  I bet if you pick out any of the most successful sports teams you can identify both the leader and the supporting members also providing leadership.

I’ve been lucky to work with some great leaders in my time, people who have helped shape who I am and how I work. A great leader not only leads the team but helps build the individuals within the team. 

For the team itself to be successful it needs to be built on three core foundations: trust, respect and diversity. 

Trust

I once worked for a company where the book ‘The 5 Dysfunctions of Team’ played a major part in how the Management wanted to function. In the book, the very first element highlighted as a failing for many teams was the lack of trust. 

I couldn’t agree more. Working in an environment where there is no trust is an exhausting and stressful experience. Individuals make decisions based on their own objectives and it is almost impossible to navigate a team towards a common objective.  Fear of failure and lack of support will radically reduce the effectiveness of the team. 

While this might seem like common sense, trust is actually surprisingly hard to cultivate in the working environment and is often overlooked. 

While we all want team players in our teams, the corporate machine has no capability of measuring those skills – and in many cases pits team members against each other.  How often is the team player promoted over the go getting, highly ambitious ‘stop at nothing’ individual?

The recruiting process is often no better – focusing mostly on experience, qualifications and hard skills. How much effort is spent on these softer qualities such as team player, empathy and honesty.  To get noticed now we all have to be excellent at self promotion but I would suggest that those who are great at self promotion are not always best at those softer skills.   

Respect

You can’t like everyone you’ve ever worked with or expect to have a team where everyone is best mates all the time. That’s just the reality in most working environments. 

You don’t need to like people to work well with them – but you do need to respect them. 

Respect is what gives you the ability to work well with people who you don’t quite gel with – or even dislike. But it doesn’t always come naturally – it requires effort on your part. 

To be a good team member you need to show everyone respect – all the time, every time and without exception.  You need to understand other’s points of view and appreciate their unique value to the team – even if you don’t appreciate their humour or personality. 

Teams are a bit like families; everyone has their own unique quirks and qualities, strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes you get along – sometimes you annoy the hell out of each other. But when you accept the people in your team for what they are – and appreciate what they bring to the table – then you can start to see some really powerful results. 

Diversity

I recently had a chat with a recruitment agent who had been tasked with the job of recruiting a new team for a start-up  – but this new team member HAD to come from their only competitor.  

That is possibly the most absurd brief I’d ever heard. How is that going to create a team that is going to be innovative and get a step ahead of the competition? 

In my experience, the best teams I’ve worked with have always been diverse. 

This diversity not only brings a breadth of skills to the team – but it adds so much richness to the working day, challenges your thinking and ensures you’re never short of new ideas. 

What do I mean by diverse? I mean cutting the cake in as many ways as possible: men and women, cultures and background, different life stages, even vegetarians and meat-eaters! Although vegans may be pushing the boat out too far… 

Only kidding. I’d respect the vegans on the team too.

You might ask yourself if diversity is the right approach to get a focused team?

Surely it would be easier to have a team that all conform to a certain way of thinking? Surely a team of all alpha-males at the peak of their powers (or for that matter a bunch of like-minded vegans on a mission to save the world) would make the best team possible?  

Science says not. Just look at what happens to the super chickens when you take diversity out of the equation – it turns out that they don’t do so well.

Diversity is the key to keeping your team on its toes and getting the most out of every project.

It’s All Common Sense Really 

Of course, there’s plenty more we could talk about when it comes to teams: clear goals, motivation, supportive environment to name a few…But if you just get these three core foundations right the rest soon falls into place. 

It’s likely that none of this new to you; It’s a lot of common sense. But just because it’s common sense doesn’t mean we practice it. 

Even though we all know this stuff, how often do you actually put the learnings into practice? Sometimes we just need a little reminder.